Academy days
by ananas34
Summary: How the relationship between Uhura and Spock began. will consist of small scenes from the academy days and also include Gaila, maybe Kirk and other known TOS characters including Spock's parents. Give it a shot and please leave a comment!
1. Chapter 1

His mother had cried silent tears, the day he had left for Earth to join the Starfleet academy.

As he turned towards her to tell her goodbye, he saw the tears, sparkling in the early sunlight of the day, running down her face, and read the unhappiness in her sad eyes. Moments like this made him remember her human nature, her vulnerability in the solid world of science and logic that was Vulcan.

These human outbursts of emotion had become seldom over the years, taking him by surprise, every time they did occur. For, as the years had passed, her face had become as blank and emotionless as the surrounding waste and dessert land. Only her brown eyes she could not control.

They were like doors to her soul and always so full of human life. Her eyes told, what she would not herself dare to express. They told of love, fear and joy; these eyes that he himself had inherited. They made him stand apart from the rest and reminded him of the human side in him, he struggled to forget.

This morning as they stood in the long corridor, he looked into them for an answer, but found none, and he was forced to break the silence between them

"I do not understand. You have on numerous occasions expressed your support for my decision. You even encouraged me to proceed against father's will."

"Oh, my dear child." she replied with a loving smile. "You have still much to learn about human emotions."

"Then you are not..._unhappy_?" the word felt alien in his mouth. Even though he was part human, he had been raised a Vulcan and had learned to relay on logic, not emotions.

"I weep not out of sorrow, but out of happiness." she reached out for him and took his hands between hers. "Earth will teach you many things, hold knowledge that I have not been able to give you myself." They stood like this for a moment, his hands in her fragile grip, and then she pressed them once tenderly before finally releasing them. "Still it is hard for me to let you go."

Her words puzzled him. "I am not sure I understand what you expect me to gain from my stay on Earth."

"I hope, "she replied slowly, "it will give you a chance to settle the two halves in you, and make you whole."

At this he raised one eyebrow in amazement, and he carefully selected his next words. "If you are expecting me to return more..._human_..." he looked at her questioningly, but she only shook her head. "It is after all only logical that you, as human, would want me to follow human costumes.", he continued while he gazed into her eyes with new intensity. He felt a strong impulse to reach out for her, but instead he tightened the grip of his left hand around his right hand on his back. He anxiously awaited her answer.

"My dear child, no matter which path you choose, you will always be dear to me." Her eyes were bright and clear, but still red from her previous crying.

The silence between them had returned, as he had pondered the logic in her words. At last he said: "I must leave now."

"I know. Goodbye my son." she looked him in the eyes for an intense moment, and he could read both the joy and the sorrow, she apparently felt at his departure. How peculiar.

"Goodbye mother. May you live long and prosper." he did not return her genuine smile, but merely nodded in her direction, and then he turned away from her and proceeded down the corridor, leaving her red-cried eyes behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

_Buzz _

There it was again, the sound that had most defiantly awakened her.

_Buzzzz_

And again. If only she could identify it and make it stop.

Even now, half asleep, her trained ears began a slow but methodically analysis of this frustrating sound. It was a deep buzzing that repeating itself over and over again, not unlike...with sudden realisation her eyes sprang open. Someone was at the door, she realised.

Her eyes felt heavy and uncooperative, as she struggled to make the bright figures on her digital watch by her bedside mean anything. Slowly the figures became readable numbers. It was 4:30.

_Buzzzz_

Only a strong wish to make the buzzing sound stop made her leave her warm bed and drag herself to the door. When she reached it, she hit the speaker button rather hard.

"Who's this?" her voice sounded hoarse.

"It's me, Gaila."

Of course it was Gaila. Who other than her crazy green skinned roommate would be out this late on a regular school night?

"Come on Uhura, let me in, I'm freezing out her." Reluctantly she opened the door and Gaila with a good amount of cold evening air entered the room.

"What took you so long? I have been standing outside for half an hour!" Gaila asked while taking off a thin summer jacket. She was elegantly dressed in a black short sleeved dress, which Uhura happened to notice was rather short for this time of year.

"I was sleeping." she replied and shot the door with unnecessary force. Only now did Gaila turn towards her friend, and when she saw Uhura's angry looks, she quickly uttered a heartfelt apology. On any normal occasion this would certainly have calmed Uhura down, but tonight is was not enough.

"There is s reason why you have your own keys, you know." The evening air had deprived her from the last sleepiness, which might otherwise have made her think nothing of the matter. "What are you doing out so late anyway?"

Gaila opened her mouth to explain, but Uhura interrupted her. "Never mind, I don't want to know!" and sat down on her bed.

"Well someone's in a mood." Gaila said offended and sad down on her own bed, intentionally placing herself with her back to Uhura to create an intolerable "wall" of separation. She made an effort to sound insulted, when she kicked of her black high heeled stilettos.

In the now three years she had shared a room with Uhura, she had learnt a thing or two about how to handle her temper. She knew for sure that Uhura could not be angry with her for long and playing insulted usually helped to speed up the process. And she was right. Gaila did not need to play insulted for long, before Uhura began to soften.

"I'm sorry Gaila it's just, I haven't been sleeping very well for some time and I have a pretty important test in subspace translation tomorrow..." Uhura tried to explain.

Gaila abruptly turned to face Uhura. "Oh, that's Spock's class isn't it? I know how much his opinion means to you." Uhura was at once grateful for the darkness surrounding them, for else Gaila might have seen her blush. If her green roommate would only realise just how important Mr. Spock's opinion had recently become to her, she would never hear the end of it.

"Oh, Uhura I'm truly sorry, you've talked of nothing but that test all week. I should have remembered."

"It's alright Gaila, I'm sure you've had your hands full." Uhura's attempt to change the subject was stupid and transparent, but it worked efficiently.

"You betch-ya!" Gaila replied with a wide grin. The hungry look in her eyes, when she spoke the boy's name, made Uhura laugh hard. And for several minutes all she could do was listen to Gaila's uncensored babble about a recently discovered senior student from her navigation class.

When Uhura had first meet Gaila, she had wondered a great deal about her attitude towards boys. The fact that she seemed to collect them like other people collect post stamps, had been more alien to her then her green skin colour. But in the end she had given up trying to understand her. The two of them had gotten along perfectly ever since.

Uhura felt her mode improve as Gaila's story proceeded, and by the time Gaila had told her everything she could ever care to know, and a good deal more, about anyone of Gaila's acquaintances, she had quite forgotten all about it.

This new tranquillity however did not last long, for Gaila had only just finished her thrilling tale, when she suddenly exclaimed: "Talking about good looks, you're Spook isn't half bad."

Uhura's bright smile was gone in a second and she only managed to mutter a most unintelligible sequence of various noises including a silent "My Spock..?" But seeing from the doubtful look on Gaila's face that she was betraying more emotions then she cared to share at present, she managed to shut herself up.

"I know he's a teacher and all that, but you've got to admit, he looks kind of cute." Gaila shoved her sparkling white teeth in a broad grin.

"Cute...?" The word puzzled Uhura. She had recently thought a lot about Spock, much more then she ought to, but the word cute had never been part of her vocabulary.

"Yeah, with his tight uniform and firm manners. Haven't you noticed?" Gaila looked at her with an undisguised astonishment. "Well..." Uhura shifted her position nervously. "I guess, I have noticed how he likes to arrange his belongings neatly before him..."

"What!" Gaila exclaimed and no words could possibly describe her facial impression. "Sometimes Uhura you say the strangest things." She carefully studied the silent girl sitting across her, before continuing: "Haven't you seen how half of the female students follow his every gesture and every movement every time he walks by on campus? They must be positively drabbling in class. Surely you must have noticed?" But Uhura had not, and so she told Gaila excluding the true reason for her ignorance.

"Well, I'm disappointed..." Gaila exclaimed her voice thick with sarcasm. "Oh, really?" Uhura replied with the same amount of irony.

"Yes, I thought that here was a male that could finally deserve you're interest." Gaila continued with a smirk.

"Is that so?"

"Well, let's se. He's intelligent. That's certainly a plus. Whenever conversation is going slow you can always discuss subspace frequencies and phonetics." Uhura lips formed a genuine and beautiful smile.

"He's serious and grim..." here Gaila sat straight up and mimicked Spock's blank facial expression making Uhura laugh hard, "and completely humourless which will suit you perfectly." Gaila's tale was delayed by the white pillow that at that moment hit her head.

Nevertheless she continued an instant later with the words: "Besides he's mysterious and absolutely mouth-dibbling gorgeous." The white pillow came flying back and hit its owner on the side of the head.

"Don't give me that reproachful look. I'm only stating the obvious." Gaila tried her best to look innocent, but from Uhura's point of view, she failed completely.

Still smiling Uhura threw herself on the bed. Her digital watch now read 5:24, she noticed.

"You know, I really think that..." Gaila started to say, but Uhura cut her off. "Goodnight Gaila." They could continue their talk another time, right now her eyelids started to feel heavy. Her look became unfocused.

She watched while the dots on her digital watch changed marking the passing of time. How strange, Uhura thought. The minutes and seconds went by. Slowly the figures became unreadable to her, so she turned around and fell asleep.


End file.
